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The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories

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In 1969, LeGuin shattered the standards of science fiction with "The Left Hand of Darkness," an accessible, amazing story set in a universe she had developed in earlier romances. "Left Hand" explored the meaning of sexuality and its implications in an entirely new way. If you haven't read "Left Hand," you should.

She has returned to that universe many times since, most recently in "The Telling," but only in "Birthday of the World" does she approach issues of humanity and sexuality and its implications with the brilliance and sheer elegance that she brought to "Left Hand." The short stories of "Birthday" are as good as short science fiction gets.

One of LeGuin's many gifts is to tell a fine story, while at the same time holding a mirror to our own world. By creating relationships that are different from our own - sedoretu, a complex marriage system, for example - she allows us to see from a new viewpoint, and more clearly, the express and implied values in our own culture. Don't misunderstand; there is no preaching or lecturing, only a very fine set of stories very well told.

Another of her gifts is to take an intellectual structure and wrap a marvellous story around it. In her fantasy novel "Wizard of Earthsea," it was Jungian psychology. Here she takes her background in cultural anthropology to explore the modalities of human relationships. Her storytelling is so deft that you can read these stories for the superb writing that they are and enjoy them immensely. But they work at other levels, too, and seeing the intellectual structure cleverly crafted into the narrative gives the perceptive reader additional pleasure.

LeGuin's brilliant characters, her spare writing and her eloquence are as evident here as in her longer writing. This amazing woman has been writing at this level for more than 30 years. In the last three years she has produced this and an earlier collection of short stories - "Tales from Earthsea" - and a novel - "The Other Wind" - very nearly as delightful as this collection. If she wrote in the so-called "mainstream" genre, she'd have a stack of Pulitzers by now. But it is our luck she hangs with us in the science fiction ghetto, and graces us with tales like these.

If the last line of "Unchosen Love" doesn't make you blink back tears; if the grace of the first paragraph of the title story doesn't astound you; well, we must not like the same kind of literature. Bravo, Ms. LeGuin!

To coin a term for a form of prose that's lacked one, Ursula K. Le Guin as chosen "story-suite" for a collection of short stories that are connected by theme, location, or events. This book mirrors her last SF story-suite, Four Ways to Forgiveness, in connectivity by theme but diverges from connectivity by place. At least, it makes wide ranges 'round the setting of many of her SF stories, called her "Hainish Universe." (Le Guin, typical of her self-deprecating humor, talks of her laziness in re-using this setting in her forward.)

The theme of these stories is relationships. With ourselves. With our lovers. With our society. They use various tools to explore this topic and reveal the complexities of being human. Stories range from a first-contact tale with a deeply anthropological tone to a "comedy of manners" among some of the most complicated relationships in the universe. Along the way, we touch on some familiar settings (the world of Left Hand of Darkness, that of Four Ways) and get a look at some new.

The final tale in this collection, a novella entitled Paradises Lost, is a bit of a divergence from the rest. It does not reside in the Hainish universe setting but upon a ship bound for a distant planet. Generations are born and die upon the ship as it crosses the vastness of space towards its destination. We watch one of those generations grow up and deal with a crisis of faith. In the end, we are presented with the answer chosen by the characters through whom we see the story. Typical of her skill, however, Le Guin does not present this solution as an absolute. That these people are protagonists does not make them absolutely right; other choices remain valid and are not demonized.

Most refreshing for me, is the number of stories in this collection that have, for at least part of their narrative, the voices of children. For her last couple of books, Le Guin was excercising a mature voice, one of parents, grandparents, rulers burdened with great decisions. I suspected the trend followed Le Guin's own aging; that she was now writing the books of her maturity while previous ones were the books of her youth. In this collection, however, we see that her talent cannot be so easily pigeon-holed. The youthful voices speak with vigor and candor. The ideas are fresh, whole; they make a maddening sense and immerse you fully in their gossamer worlds.

With each new release, Le Guin demonstrates that she is master of her craft.

In this collection of short stories, Le Guin returns to her fictional universe of the classics "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Disposessed." The stories in this volume equal the power of her best works. Le Guin discusses superstition and religion in the title story; however, it is surpassed by the novella "Paradises Lost," in which she portrays human nature, sexuality, and deontology vs. teleology in a stunning way. Although this book is not appropriate for young children, all other Le Guin fans and newcomers to her work will certainly enjoy it.

I tend to prefer novels to short story collections. I find short stories to largely be less satisfying and engrossing than novels. However, as a great fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, I could not help but pick up this collection. I recommend this book for fans of Le Guin's novels set in the Hainish universe. 6 of the 8 stories are set in different planets of the universe, some of which have been visted in previous works. If you haven't read Le Guin before, I recommend you pick up some of her earlier works, particularly The Left Hand of Darkness, before reading this one, to familarize yourself with the concepts, because she doesn't fully explain them here.

I like to term Le Guin's work as "creative anthropology." Ever since I read some of her nonfiction works about her life, particulary growing up with an anthropologist father, her fiction has made more and more sense to me. Instead of writing about actual societies, she invents societies and gets us inside of them, exposes to us essentialities of human nature via the alienness of different cultures. The stories are not plot-focused; instead you spend a great deal of time just getting to know these different places and people.

"Coming of Age in Karhide"
This story is a perfect complement to fans of The Left Hand of Darkness, as it takes place on the same planet of Gethen, where no one is either male or female; instead they take on male or female characteristics during "kemmer," 3 days of the month during which they mate. The rest of the time they are genderless and do not have sex. The story concerns the first kemmer of a young child on Gethen. The story is mainly a lighthearted look into Gethenian society, a somewhat different perspective than The Left Hand of Darkness.

"The Matter of Seggri"
This takes place on a world in which females vastly outnumber males. The sexes are strictly segregated and "men have all the privilege while women have all the power." It comes together in snippets from different Ekumen visits to Seggri and some inhabitents of the planet themselves, exposing the situation from several different angles. To me this story exemplifies the cruelty of trying to fit people into gender-based boxes, preventing them from growing into who they really are.

"Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways"
Both of these stories take place on the planet of O, in which marriages consist of four people (2 women, 2 men). Le Guin masterfully untangles the world of people for whom marriage is intertwining love triangles, exposing the core of emotion within.

"Solitude"
Le Guin terms this story a tribute to introverts. The people on this planet gain their energy from being alone rather than being together. For the Hainish mother of two children who comes to study this strange society, it is stifling, but her younger daughter manages to find the meaning in the solitude.

"Old Music and the Slave Women"
For me the most difficult to get into of the collection, this story takes place on Werel, which Le Guin previously wrote about in her collection Four Ways to Forgiveness. I think had I read that, I would have enjoyed this story more. It takes place on a world broken by civil war, a civil war focused on (you guessed it) slavery.

"The Birthday of the World"
Le Guin flips her usual trend of looking at other societies from the aliens' point of view, and instead looks at the aliens from the native's point of view in this story.

"Paradises Lost"
Although not at all similar to the other stories in a number of ways, this novella-length story is the gem of this collection. A group of colonists from earth is seeking a new planet to live on hundreds of light years away. But instead of putting themselves in deep freeze during the flight like in so many movies, Le Guin questions what if actually lived out their lives on the ship--bore children, died, then their children bore children and died, and by the time the ship reaches its destination, none of the people on board remember anything about life outside of the ship. A fascinating premise, this story is written in a totally different style than the rest of the collection and could probably stand on its own.

I am a fan of most of Le Guin's books. Although I don't like every one of them, several of her books are among my favorite novels. I really admire her explorations into the "otherness" of gender, which was the primary theme in her greatest novel "The Left Hand of Darkness." In "The Birthday of the World", Le Guin revisits Karhide (where "Left Hand of Darkness" took place) and plays with the idea of complex marriages, unbalanced societies, and the loss of innocence, all themes she has touched on throughout her writing career.

If you are new to Le Guin, I'd recommend you read one of her great novels first ("Left Hand of Darkness", "The Dispossessed) Then, these stories should flesh out an appreciation for her work. If you are working on writing your own science fiction or speculative fiction, I'd highly recommend this book of short stories along with "Steering the Craft", her writing workshop handbook. These two volumes really should be packaged together for fiction writers.

Here's a wonderful book for any fan of Ursula Le Guin. It begins with a foreword by the author in which she outlines each of the stories, most of which take place on worlds of her well-known Ekumen, her “Hainish Universe.”. However alien the cultures may be, however strange their societal structures and customs, Ms. Le Guin uses each tale to underscore what truly unites us and makes us human. These stories comprise the first two-thirds of the book.

As much as I relish Le Guin’s Hainish stories, it is the novelette “Paradises Lost,” comprising the final third of the book, that is most rewarding. It’s a change of pace for the author, involving not the worlds of the Ekumen, but rather a generation spacecraft on a 201-year voyage from Earth to a “New Earth” orbiting some unnamed neighboring star. Most of the narrative involves characters who have lived their entire lives in this self-contained bubble of metal and air. They know nothing of Earth save what they have experienced via films and “virtual reality” programs. The simple concept of “sky” is completely unfathomable to them. They have their own rituals and customs with which they structure their lives until it becomes necessary to debark on the surface of a new world. Ultimately, for some hese colonists who have become comfortable in their self-contained universe, the notions of OUTSIDE and NEW WORLD begin to seem rather intimidating and even evil. How will they cope when the spacecraft arrives at its destination? Ms. Le Guin deftly explores this culture and its destiny, and the ending quite literally brought tears to my eyes. Throughout “The Birthday of the World,” we realize how much we have in common as human beings, no matter whether we are on Gethen, in a spaceship, on Earth, or anywhere in the universe, that we have our loves, our hopes, and our fears, and that EVERY DAY is the birthday of the world.

Wow. I am an anthropology and sociology major at the University of Michigan, and I picked up this book for free at a used book sale. Impressed would be an understatement. Guin's stories are as thorough as the ethnographies that I have to read for my Anthro classes; class, gender, inequality, signification, and more are covered in a writing that envelopes and enchants the reader. My favorite story is "Paradise Lost", a story about the culture and mythology that are created in a space vessel of humans travelling for generations towards a destination set by people who have been long dead. With none of the original people, the memory of Earth becomes more and more alien, and the quiet isolation of the ship entropies the spirit of discovery and adventure, transformed into a religion about the endless journey as the end goal of humanity. A simply amazing story.

This book is amazing! Every single story is a joy to read! I'm largely a fan of her "Hainish" work, and the stories set in that universe are a real treat. Le Guin applies her usual intelligence to all of these stories, but she also succeeds in giving voice to some of these characters. She develops theme without sacrificing character. This is evident in "Mountain Ways" and "Solitude", where she gives us glimpses of these societies and their customs, yet she also gives us access to the characters and what motivates them. At Le Guin's current age, some writers have reached their peak and slowed down (or even have stopped altogether). However, Le Guin's still going very strong, even stronger, as this collection of novellas shows considerable growth in her writing since those important novels from decades ago. Also, she's been quite prolific over the past few years, also a very good sign.

Sci-fi book covers can be problematic at times. Some of them are downright cheesy. However, the design of this cover is brilliant! A human face with the eyes obscured doesn't allude to any particular character in any story. Plus, it is difficult to tell if the face is male or female, black or white. The face is simply human, and it emphasizes the humanity of the characters, which is very present in all the stories.

Overall, a must read! You won't be sorry!

This is a fine mix of stories - some old and some new - set primarily in Le Guin's Ekumen/Hainish cycle of novels and short stories. Without question Le Guin's best works in this series are her great novels "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed". One of my favorite stories in the current collection - and the very first - is "Coming of Age in Karhide", which is a fascinating, often hilarious look at a character's adolescence on the planet Gethen, taking place a few decades after the events chronicled in "The Left Hand of Darkness". The final tale "Paradises Lost" is set aboard a multigenerational starship whose crew must contend with religious fanaticism and the ship's unexpectedly swift arrival at another world. Most of the rest are just as good as these, exploring Le Guin's interests in cultural anthropology and gender relationships. All are graced with Le Guin's lyrical, often spellbinding, prose.

What a thrill, what a pleasure, to get two new LeGuin books in the same year! I don't know of that many SF authors who write so exceptionally well in both the novel and short story forms, but LeGuin certainly tops that short list. I'd read her previous collections---The Compass Rose, The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Malefrica Tales---so I knew that I'd be reading some fine work. But as it's been awhile since the last short story collection, I wondered what Ms. LeGuin had been up to, where was she coming from, what was her focus these days? And the answer to that is as complex and as simple as a leaf, as a feather: humanity. Not in a species-chauvanistic sense, but looking deeper, into the very question of what makes us human. Spirituality, freedom, community responsibilities, societal struggle, emotional truth: this is a wonderful (and wonder-full) mix of stories, set on a wonderful mix of planets and cultures, each a small, deceptionally-simple window onto a world never before seen. This is not space- opera-type writing, not wars and plots and violence, but about PEOPLE, living, loving, breathing people, and it makes my mind leap upwards and outwards, wondering what possibilities exist, both in this tiny world of ours and in the great universe surrounding us---not that LeGuin makes me feel small and insignificant! Rather that she makes me want to become large enough to understand and to embarce it all...Really fine writing, highly-recommended.